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It took time, but Antonio Brown finally did right by the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Forget about his statistics. Brown compiled those for himself, not the team.

The Steelers never won a Super Bowl with Brown. (Told you so.)

But upon departing for Oakland, Brown immediately proved the turmoil that enveloped him in Pittsburgh was every bit his fault. Brown did so by creating comparable bedlam with the Raiders that is, again, totally his doing.

It wasnít Ben Roethlisberger causing problems in Pittsburgh, like Brown and many agenda-serving members of the national football media claimed.

Brownís teammates in Oakland donít yet know him well enough to sabotage him, if heís considering similar fabrication.

Brown let the Steelers off the hook. Roethlisberger is awaiting lots of apologies.

Brown rarely has practiced this summer. He hasnít been seen at Raiders training camp in more than a week. Heís late for meetings, inattentive during. He bullied his bosses in Pittsburgh. Heís doing the same at Oakland. You knew that the minute Brown brought his kids onto the field for practice. Brown is running roughshod.

For someone with a rep for working hard, Brown misses a lot of practice. Dedication isnít juggling a brick on video, then refusing to pay your personal trainer. Dedication involves pulling the same rope as your teammates. Dedication includes jelling.

Brown long has benefited from excuses made on his behalf. The latest barrage cites the potential for CTE. Or perhaps Brown is troubled, and needs therapy.

But itís more likely Brown is a jerk and has been since tumbling out of the womb. He dropped to the sixth round of the 2010 NFL Draft because of character issues.

Brownís personality shortcomings have been exacerbated by money and notoriety. Brown doesnít care about winning, his teammates, his ďfriends,Ē or his family. His lone concern for any situation is how it benefits him. The world exists for Brownís gain.

Being stupid doesnít do much to dilute Brownís narcissism.

The acute frostbite his feet absorbed during cryotherapy could only have occurred had Brown not worn the proper protective footwear. Maybe he wore his $1,000 loafers. You need to be fashionable inside that cryotherapy chamber.

If the notion of Brown refusing to protect his body properly during cryotherapy rings dumb, consider heís campaigning to wear an unsafe helmet.

Thatís Brownís latest crisis: Heís worn the same helmet since beginning his NFL career. Now itís been deemed unsafe. But Brown said other helmets impede his vision.

There are dozens of approved helmet options. But Brown threatened to retire or take legal action vs. the NFL if he canít wear his old helmet. Itís been an issue since May. On the rare occasions he practices, Brown tries to sneak his old helmet onto the field. He even applied a makeshift silver-and-black paint job once. Canít believe that didnít work.

Thirty-one other players have switched from their old helmets this season, including Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers.

Brady doesnít like it. The NFL doesnít care. So Brady made the change.

Brown bullied the Steelers. Heís bullying the Raiders. But he canít bully the NFL. His appeal was denied Monday.

This is terrific for Steelers fans. You get to witness the uproar, but the Raiders have to clean up the mess.

They wonít be able to.

The Raiders arenít a very good team to begin with. Brown is making coach Jon Gruden and GM Mike Mayock look like bigger fools with each new eccentricity. The Raiders were 4-12 last season. They needed a workmanlike camp, not an excrement storm.

But Brown has been exactly as advertised.

It will get better, not worse. Between his feet and residue from the helmet drama, itís easy to imagine Brown not playing in Week 1, or performing poorly if he does. When Brown struggles, the finger-pointing starts. Agitation ferments. Manure rolls downhill. Brown no-shows, or dreams up an injury. He goes in the tank.

Heck, can they even find him? Do they know where the wide receiver is?

Is he in the Bay Area or is he in Florida?

Maybe he's in France?

Maybe heís finally mowing his lawn in Pine Township?

Is he really even an official Oakland Raider?

Who knows?

All I know is this: Brown is already the most powerful person in black and silver and he is making both Gruden and general manager Mike Mayock look positively silly.

Brown has already succeeded --- again, without catching one pass --- in getting two very good football men who promised to change the culture of the Raiders to kowtow to him.

What a world we live in. Look, I donít mind that athletes are more powerful than coaches. It is what it is, it isnít 1955 anymore and athletes are the ones who carry the freight and risk the big injury --- especially in football. But this situation is absurd, and it all really revolves, for me at least, around one thing that Gruden said over this past weekend.

ďThereís been a lot of reports out there; I canít say I agree with all of them,Ē Gruden said. ďThis foot injury wasnít his fault, and itís a serious injury. Ö And the helmet thing is a personal matter to him Ö and weíre supporting him.Ē

What nonsense from Gruden.

First, the cold feet issue with Brown. I mean, feet so cold that reportedly he injured them severely in one of those treatment chambers. Iíd love to know how failing to wear the proper protective footwear inside such a chamber wasnít Antonio Brownís fault. Brown has been in one of those cryotherapy chambers before and if he didnít understand the protocol this time to avoid frostbite, that is certainly on him.

If he knew the decorum and elected to ignore it, that is even more on him.

Either way, Coach Gruden, the issue of the frozen and peeling feet is certainly the fault of Antonio Brown. Those feet are his moneymakers and heís reckless to not take all the precautions in the world to protect them.

Now to the second part of the quote --- the part where Gruden makes a point to say the Raiders are supporting Brown in his fight to wear a helmet that isnít permissible by NFL rules.

Why? Why on Earth would a head coach in a league that has fought so hard for player safety align himself with the one guy in the league who is refusing to play by the rules and, in a sense by doing so, ignore every single other player in the NFL who is doing things the right way in regard to the helmet rule.

Gruden has been rendered impotent.

Gruden has had his knees whacked down and heís nothing but feeble and powerless at this point.

The Oakland Raiders have yet to play a regular season game in the Antonio Brown Era --- and Brown isnít even practicing with the team --- and he has proven to be a million times more powerful than the coach and general manager.

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Steelers fans can already sit back and enjoy the destruction elsewhere

by MATT KOLL
AUGUST 12, 2019

In it, there is a scene in which the main character Clark Griswold gets his much anticipated Christmas ďbonusĒ in the mail. He had been waiting for the extra bump in order to install a pool in his backyard.

In front of his entire familyÖwife, kids, parents, in-laws and slightly degenerate cousins that have all congregated at his house for the holiday seasonÖClark opens the bonus to find that it isnít the money he had hoped for but it is a ďone year membership in the Jelly of the Month Club.Ē

Seconds after announcing this, a character known as ďUncle EddieĒ in his hilarious, vapid ignorance exclaims, ďClark, thatís the gift that keeps on giving the whole year.Ē

I canít help but to think about that line and chuckle when I see all that has gone over the past few days with Antonio Brown.

Here we were just a few short months ago, sitting through the national narratives that Mike Tomlin and Ben Roethlisberger didnít treat him fairly and that Brown was somehow oppressed by the Steelers.

That somehow he wanted to leave the Steelers because Ben didnít treat him like family or that they didnít let him play in Week 17 against Cincinnati despite his desire to.

As Steelers fans, you knew.

You knew what Antonio Brown was like to deal with. You knew that he went Facebook Live during what was supposed to be a private locker room celebration and meeting after a playoff victory. You knew he threatened reporters and hinted at wanting to be traded on social media. You knew about his reckless behavior including throwing furniture out of an apartment window that was stories high, about driving 100+ mph on McKnight Rd.

You even knew about the things on the field, like missing a week of training camp mysteriously, blowing up on the sidelines and throwing water coolers or screaming in the face of his coaches. Oh, and the reported practice blow up on Ben Roethlisberger and subsequent disappearance the rest of the week leading up to that Week 17 game.

You knew. But maybe the football world didnít. Or maybe didnít quite understand what happened. Or maybe it was just Jon Gruden, Mike Mayock and the Raiders.

Whatever the case, Antonio Brown is causing destruction elsewhere and to be honest, there is a sweet satisfaction in that. After Brown had been traded for just a 3rd and 5th round pick, there were many analysts that declared Brown ultimately ďwonĒ the months long battle between he and the organization.

The Steelers got screwed in letting a talent like Brown walk out the door for such a little price.

Oh, but the price will be paid. And it will be paid all year long, Clark.

Brown hasnít even gotten onto the field yet in a Raiders uniform and heís already somehow frozen his feet to the point of not being able to practice.

Not that he would even be able to practice anyway, as he has now filed a grievance against the NFL for making him switch helmets for this season because the one heís used to wearing is now out of compliance.

He has gone so far as to say he will retire if he canít wear the right helmet and tried to sneak his old helmet into Raiders practice. NFL PR man Brian McCarthy tweeted Monday morning that Brown will not be able to practice, play or get paid if he doesnít wear the correct helmet.

Remember when the Steelers drama started before the season even began? Remember when off the wall issues like this would come storming (or helicoptering) into Latrobe before the first regular season snap?

Itís almost a sense of rejoice watching this all unfold. I canít help but at least slightly enjoy watching Brown taking his insane antics on the road, never to return to Pittsburgh as a member of the home team again. A relief, no doubt.

I donít expect it to end here, either. I donít believe Brown will miss any games (or his money) by not complying with this helmet policy. But this wonít be the end of the nonsense. Why would it?

If weíve learned anything over the past few years itís that the Antonio Brown drama and distraction monster can strike at any time. The Raiders are now in the process of learning that themselves.

Oh, and that return for Brown hasnít looked all that bad either to this point. You could argue the extra two picks in return allowed them at least more comfortability in using their first and second round picks to move up to 10th overall and draft Michigan linebacker Devin Bush. He racked up 10 tackles in the first half on Friday night.

Yes, I know one preseason game. But I also like what James Washington showed on Friday as well and all reports out of camp say that Ben and Donte Moncrief have gained an almost immediate chemistry.

The Steelers may never fully replace his production when he was actually on the field and at his best. Antonio Brown will likely get his catches. Heíll get his yards. Heíll get some touchdowns. But Iím very interested to see how those weigh against the baggage heíll bring along the way. Iím interested to see how that stat line actually translates to wins on the field.

Now that they moved on from him, Antonio Brown is the Steelers gift to the Raiders that keeps on giving all year longÖ.and probably beyond.

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How come the media isn’t giving Colbert credit on how he’s gotten over on Gruden?

1. Colbert got a 3rd round pick for Martavius Bryant ( who isn’t even in the league anymore) and turned it into our possible qb of the future.

2. Then he ONLY got a 3rd and a 5th round picks for ACB which now looks like real value now because of the ever increasing destructiveness of ACB to his new team.

Colbert is bending Gruden over headboard. I hope to do more business with the Raiders in the near future in this fashion.

From the 2010-2018 season, (An 8 year period that the majority of Cowher's players & coaches had left) Mike Tomlin has only won 3 playoff games. And two of those wins were against back up Quarterbacks. Our history has been defined by what we do in the postseason; not the regular season.